Reefer load volumes continued to drop seasonally, especially in Southern California. Reefer prices are also lower than they were in June, but that’s normal for this time of year. The good news is it’s happening slower than it did in 2015.

Below is a look at some of the biggest price changes for spot market reefer freight last week.

All rates include fuel surcharges and are based on real transactions between carriers and brokers.

Darker-colored states have higher load-to-truck ratios, meaning that there’s less competition for reefer loads in those states.

RISING

Chicago reefer volumes have been building up for a while, and outbound rates finally started to improve last week.

• Chicago to Atlanta paid ▲14¢ more for an average of $2.20/mile
• Green Bay to Minneapolis rose ▲14¢, to $1.90/mile
• Reefer rates and volumes were up slightly in Dallas
• Southern California lagged, but volume is rising in Sacramento. Hopefully that’ll lead to some higher rates this week

FALLING

Rates are still falling out of Florida, and California prices have also started tapering off.

• Lakeland, FL to Charlotte rates plunged ▼28¢ to just $1.18/mile. The lane from Lakeland to Atlanta also lost ▼16¢
• Atlanta to Philadelphia lost another ▼17¢, to $2.36/mile
• Outbound rates slipped across the board in Los Angeles, Fresno, and Ontario, but prices are otherwise holding up pretty well
• L.A. to Portland, OR lost ▼18¢, but it’s still paying an average of $2.43/mile
• Fresno to Denver dropped ▼14¢ to $2.42/mile

The Panama Canal opened a new lane for larger ships this week, and East Coast ports have been expanding efforts to attract Asian imports that would otherwise arrive on the West Coast. The canal expansion has run into plenty of obstacles along the way, and many East Coast ports still aren’t ready to accommodate the larger ships. 

Expansion at the Panama Canal, pictured above, has led to a business boom in South Carolina. Photo by Stan Shebs.

But the South Carolina freight market has already gotten a boost thanks to the expansion, and the industrial boom has been evident on DAT Load Boards. Greenville, SC, rose to 11th place for the number of van load posts last year, and its average load-to-truck ratio in 2015 was higher than any other “top 30” market. Last week’s load-to-truck ratio in Greenville rose to 7.4, well above the national average of 2.7 loads per truck. 

Warehouses and industrial parks continue to grow in and around Greenville and Spartanburg, according to the Wall Street Journal, and more goods are expected to arrive from the Port of Charleston, some 200 miles away. 

Cities from the Gulf Coast to New York are also trying to lure more Asian imports once the canal opens. Economists and developers say the Upstate’s low labor costs and acres of cheap, undeveloped land, give the region an edge. They also cite its manufacturing base, as the auto industry draws suppliers to locate closer to factories, and growing auto exports require bigger ocean vessels to reach customers around the world.

The expanded Panama Canal “is going to drive industry and create even more businesses there,” said Joel Sutherland, director of the Supply Chain Management Institute at the University of San Diego. “Having a regular flow of containers…will attract major manufacturing, then their suppliers, then their suppliers’ suppliers, and ultimately more people.”

The rates are also trending up. The top outbound lane from Greenville is a short hop over to Atlanta. That lane paid an average of $3.09 per mile last week, which is 20¢ higher than it was a month ago.

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